Self Defense
by Chiggles Grigori
Summary: There are so many people in the world. There are ones we choose to love, ones we choose to hate, and others we don't even know.
1. First Sight

At the top of the ragged apartment building was a freshly-showered blond with a tattered Boston Red Sox baseball cap on. The sun could be seen setting at the top of the apartment building, though it was only three-thirty in the afternoon. Though, this kind of stuff was the thing Jace loved the most about winter in Maine.

_ Fighting class at four, don't forget_, he thought over and over to himself. Jace constantly checked his cell phone for the time, that way he wouldn't be late for his ride with his best friend, Sebastian.

Jace never liked spending time at his apartment building-everyone there was either a druggie or a drunk, which meant that the whole building would smell like smoke, alcohol, minty chewing-tobacco, or a mix of the three.

Finally, relaxing enough, Jace sat back on the ground and stuffed his phone into his jacket pocket. Stretching his legs out in front of himself, Jace crossed his ankles over one another, and watched the sunset. After many moments, it became darker outside and his eyelids seemed to become heavier and heavier as the sky darkened, and soon, he gave in, and finally let his eyes flutter closed.

_Beep! Beep! Beeeeeeeep!_

The honking of a car horn echoing woke Jace from his afternoon nap on the roof. _Shit, shit, shit!_ Jace thought as he scurried up and sprinted toward the roof's exit door. He barreled down the stairs; as he went, he pulled out his phone and checked the time.

_4:07pm_, read the small, digital clock on his phone.

Not only was he late for his class, but now, so was Sebastian. And all of the annoying students in their class were going to give _them_ crap about being late for class.

Once reaching the lobby, Jace strode forward and threw the front doors open, jogging toward Sebastian's beat-up pickup truck, and throwing open the passenger's door, hopping in. Sebastian gave Jace and brotherly smack on the arm as Jace closed his door. Jace chuckled, feeling right at home in the cab of Sebastian's truck, and pulled his seat belt over his chest, buckling it into it's holder.

"So, man, I hear we're getting to new pests to teach in our class. One is seventeen, the other nearly sixteen," Sebastian said while revving the engine of the truck and taking off into the road.

Jace relaxed back into the leather seat of the truck's cab. He took in a deep breath from his nose, held it for a few moments, and let it out in a large, gusty breath through his mouth. He'd been feeling extremely upset all week, though couldn't put a finger on why.

The cab of the truck was filled with silence the whole way to their studio. Jace rested his head against the window and watched as they passed the many closed business shops and old, worn down apartment buildings, much like his own. There was snow on the ground that had melted in patches during the day. Too bad more snow was expected on Friday morning.

And too bad it was only Wednesday.

After many awkward moment of silence, they arrived at their fight studio. Sebastian parallel-parked his truck in in between two other cars on the side of the road.

Jace threw open the door, squeezed through the limited space between the cars, and met Sebastian at his door before he had even shut it. "Excited?" he asked sarcastically.

Jace shook his head and began ushering him toward the door in a quick haste. "No. We're, like, ten minutes late. That means we'll have to stay ten minutes late. And I _really_ want to stay eleven minutes." At this, Sebastian chuckled and began walking slower. Jace slapped his arm with the back of his hand and strode ahead of him.

Jace shoved open the door to the lobby and looked to the front desk. Usually, the secretary was unoccupied, but today, there were two people standing in front of the desk. One was shorter, with red hair tied up into a tight bun. From behind, Jace could tell she was a girl, what with just the way her body was built.

Jace's eyes then flickered to the taller person, beside the redhead. It was obviously a boy, what with his short, black hair, toned arms and shoulders. And, plus, Jace could see the side of his face from where he was standing.

On his way by the two, he turned and walked backwards. "You two here for the fighting class?" Jace asked, jerking her thumb toward the door of his studio.

The two looked up at him in surprise. The boy's eyes were a dark, dark shade of brown, almost black, and full of almost-relief. The girl's eyes, on the other hand, were a startling shade of green, eyecatching. Her eyes were boring into Jace's golden ones, as if she were unable to look away. Jace stared back, seeming to be under her spell.

They both looked away when the bell above the front door rang, and Sebastian entered the room.

He looked between Jace and the redheadded girl, raising an eyebrow.

"Am I intruding on something?" he asked with a cocky smirk on his lips.


	2. The Element of Surprise

**Something I forgot to put in the first chapter: I DON'T OWN THESE CHARACTERS. EVERY PERSON I WRITE ABOUT BELONGS TO CASSANDRA CLARE. BECAUSE I AM SO UNORIGINAL. Wow, FanFiction, thanks for making me feel so bad about myself. I think I'm going to go cry in my special corner now. Oh, and, I'm thinking of going for a _West-Side Story/Romeo and Juliet_ kind of thing. That do you guys think?**

Jace's eyes flicked from Sebastian to the redheaded girl, then back to Sebastian. His cheeks heated and became a bright color of red in his embarrassment. The girl turned slightly and looked up at her brother with a nervous expression imprinted on her face; he was looking down at her with a disapproving look on his face – one a father might give his son when he didn't look both ways before crossing the street.

"Yes," said the dark-haired guy next to the ginger. "We're here for the _self-defense_ class." He guy nodded, and gestured for Jace to lead the way. _Total dickhead,_ Jace thought,_ just what I need is _another_ dickhead that _isn't_ attached to my body._

Jace gave them both a small smile, turned around, and began to walk toward the studio. Opening the doors, he found that everyone was in a circle, stretching up. One person was in the middle, leading the stretches. _At least they have enough brains to start without us._

On Mondays and Fridays, this studio doubled as a dancing one, so the walls were plastered with mirrors and railings.

"Hey, everyone. Sorry we're late – car troubles. Where wer-..." Jace began to speak, though was cut of by a louder voice.

"Switch!" said one of Sebastian's friends. He gave Jace the 'I'm-a-dick-smirk', and everyone sat on the floor, bringing one leg out, and touching their fingers to their toes. Jace, Sebastian, and the two newcomers also sat down and began stretching out their legs.

"_As I was saying_, today we're-..." Jace's eyes scanned over the group of people. When his golden eyes fell on the redhead's deep-green ones, he'd lost his train of thought. "We're... We're going to try something new! _Switch_!" Thumping was heard as the people flung their other leg out, then touched their fingers to their toes.

"We'll have partners, them being someone you don't know. You could teach them things you know about _self defense_," Jace shot a grin in the new-guy's direction, and he returned the smile, along with a quiet chuckle. "And vise versa. Kapeesh? _Switch_!" A series of muffled "yes"'s were heard under the chorus of squeaking sneakers as everyone brought one of their knees up to their chest.

After many moments, everyone stood up, as they were done their stretching. "Find a partner – you have ten seconds!" Jace called over the small side-conversations. He speed-walked over to the redhead, and tapped her on the shoulder, causing her to turn around. He held out his sweaty-palmed right hand to her and gave her is best "I-make-girls-melt" smirk. "Uhh-... Hey! I-... I'm Jace!" To his embarrassment, he stammered over his words; heat rushed to his cheeks.

The redhead took Jace's hand with her own small one, giving him a timid smile. _Aww_, Jace's grin grew wider._ She has dimples. _This was true: the redhead had dimples on the corners of her mouth. And she also had really white teeth. Maybe not completely straight, but _really_ white.

"I'm Clary," she said. Her voice made Jace's heart clench—he wanted her to keep talking. Realizing that they were not shaking hands, but just holding hands, Jace's fingers squeezed her's lightly, and he brought her hand to his lips, kissing the backs of her fingers lightly, keeping his eyes on her wide ones all the while.

This hadn't been his original plan when he waltzed into his studio. He hadn't planned to meet a beautiful girl named Clary. His original plan had been to teach his class how to get out of a headlock, and how to put someone in one. He had planned to teach them, then get the hell out of the building, to go home to his parents' horrible, smoke-filled apartment. To, later that night, walk two miles to Sebastian's house, asking him if he could crash there that night.

Plans are flawed, though. Especially when it came to Jace's.

"Clary. That fits you." Jace's voice was soft as he spoke with her—he felt different after speaking to her for the first time. He wanted to be different, to be _her's_. Letting go of her hand, he stepped back, and stared her dead in the eye. "So, Miss _Clary. _Do do you know, that you believe I don't?"

Clary took a step forward, following Jace after his step back. Her facial expression was confused, as her eyebrows were pulled together and she was biting her lower lip. Jace clenched his teeth together tightly, the muscles in his jaw jumping; lip biting was always something Jace thought was... well, you know, sexy. He especially enjoyed doing it to other people.

"Wel-..." Jace began, though, before he could finish, he felt a hand on his arm, then found himself on the floor of the room. His breath _whooshed_ out of his lungs in a big gust of air. When his vision came back to him, Jace saw Clary standing over him with a big grin spread across her lips.

"I could teach you the element of surprise, if you want. You seem to kind of suck at it." Her voice shook from containing laughter.

"Oh, you're so funny, Gingy-... I mean _Clary_...! Now, please," he held out his right hand, "help me up?"

Clary proceeded in taking Jace's hand, though, before she could pull him up, he pulled her down, instead. As she fell, she jerked her hand free of Jace's and threw both of her arms out to catch her fall. Her hands pressed the wood flooring on either sides of Jace's shoulders. Clary's nose brushed against Jace's; her breathing washed over Jace's, warm and coming at quick paces.

"You know," Jace whispered, "I understand the element of surprise, too. And, now, since we're already talking, so you go to the high school here?"

After a moment, Clary nodded, her nose gliding over Jace's multiple times. "I'm new," she began, "and I take it you actually _go_ there? Do you think you could show me around?" she asked in small whispers.

Laying there on the floor with a girl straddled over him was-... not as bad as you'd think it'd be. Though it gets kind of awkward when there's a group of people around you.

"Front doors of the school—meet me there," was all Jace said before putting his hands on Clary's waist and moving her aside, off of him. His fingers lingered where they'd touched, then drifted back to his own body. He stood up, then proceeded to help her up.

"Okay, everyone!" Jace called over the class's battle-roars and groans of defeat in a match-up. "Circle up. What'd you learn?"

(SKIP TO THE SCHOOL SCENE!)

It felt like an eternity of waiting, sitting on the bench in front of the school in the morning. Especially since it was cold outside, and Jace had no jacket.

After many minutes of waiting, a car finally pulled up to the curb of the sidewalk. The door opened, and the car produced a beautiful redhead. Her hair was pulled back into twisted locks, held together by bobby-pins. She wore a dress: the background of it was yellow, while the design on it was of large, purple-and-green-petaled flowers. The dress caused the green-petaled-flowers to bring out her deep-emerald eyes. On her feet were flipflops; her toenails were painted the same colors of her dress in alternating turns—Jace suspected that her fingernails were also painted to the same extent.

Clary shut the car door, and it sped away, around the rotary, and back up the hill, to Main Street. Jace stood, and speed-walked toward her—he could feel the grin spreading across his lips as he got closer to her.

As he reached her, he held out his arm, and motioned wordlessly for her to loop her arm though his. A smile lit her face up as she did so. Her smile made Jace feel as though his life weren't as messed up as it actually were, that his father had never held a knife to his throat, that his mother actually cared for him. If he could never see her again, he'd rather die.

"Well, Milady. Do you have your schedule?" Jace asked, taking a peek at her face quickly, then staring forward once again just as fast.

She shook her head. "First-day, schmirst-day. Can I just come to your classes? I really hate having to go places alone. At least if I go with you, I can have a first-glimpse at this trailer park," she said, then, just as they entered through the front door, she nodded toward one of the portables on the far side of the building. So the high school was a little bit small...

"Fine. But if I get in trouble..." Jace shot her the 'or-else' glare, then opened the front door of the school, ushering her in, then following after her, they made their way to Jace's first class: AP Biology.


End file.
